ity
on the part of the two friends, Hadrian and Antinous, who have met
together before Persephone to ratify a vow of love till death. He
suggests that the wreaths are of stephanotis, that large-leaved
myrtle, which was sacred to the Chthonian goddesses after the
liberation of Semele from Hades by her son Dionysus. With reference
to such ceremonies between Greek comrades, Boetticher cites a vase
upon which Theseus and Peirithous are sacrificing in the temple of
Persephone; and he assumes that there may have existed Athenian
groups in marble representing similar vows of friendship, from which
Hadrian had this marble copied. He believes that the Genius of
Hadrian is kindling one torch at the sacred fire, which he will
reach to Antinous, while he holds the other in readiness to kindle
for himself. This explanation is both ingenious and beautiful. It
has also the great merit of explaining the action of the right arm
of Antinous. Yet it is hardly satisfactory. It throws no light upon
the melancholy and solemnity of both figures, which irresistibly
suggest a funereal rather than a joyous rite. Antinous is not even
looking at the altar, and the meditative curves of his beautiful
reclining form indicate anything rather than the spirited alacrity
with which a friend would respond to his comrade's call at such a
moment. Besides, why should not the likeness of Hadrian have been
preserved as well as that of Antinous, if the group commemorated an
act of their joint will? On the other hand, we must admit that the
altar itself is not dressed for a funereal sacrifice.

It has been pointed out that in the British Museum there exists a
basrelief of Homer's apotheosis where we notice a figure holding two
torches. Is it, then, possible that the Ildefonso marble may
express, not the sacrifice, but the apotheosis of Antinous, and that
the Genius who holds the two torches is conferring on him
immortality? The lifted torch would symbolise his new life, and the
depressed torch would stand for the life he had devoted. According
to this explanation, the sorrowful expression of Antinous must
indicate the agony of death through which he passed into the company
of the undying. Against this interpretation is the fact that we have
no precise authority for the symbolism of the torches, except only
the common inversion of the life-brand by the Genius of Death.

Yet another solution may be suggested. Assuming that we have before
us a sacrificial ceremo